Sunday, January 15, 2012

DR. KING’S MORAL AUTHORITY WAS GROUNDED IN NATURAL LAW

In the issues facing us today we need to remember
the faith driven strength, eloquence and moral authority of Dr. King. He challenged entrenched power appealing to
the justice demanded according to natural law the only code grounded in objective
truth, inscribed deep in the soul of every being and through whose prism a
person should instinctively (indeed the only way they can) know what rights are
self evident.

In the tradition of Augustine, Gandhi,
and Aquinas--Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham
Jail gave us a clear teaching on
the difference between just and unjust laws saying, “We can never forget
that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the
Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was
"illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure
that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and
comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a
Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith
are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these
anti-religious laws.”

Today and tomorrow as we honor this great apostle of
freedom and advocate for justice let us not forget he believed, in fact insisted on, the involvement of both the secular and sacred communities in the public square and proclaimed a philosophy of natural law
available to all willing to employ reason to find the truth.

This video captures his philosophy of non-violence. A
group of young people acting in the spirit of Dr. King, it is fitting they be
celebrated as we commemorate his birthday.

I leave you with passages from his seminal letter as
we pay tribute to him on his birthday!

Excerpts: Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin
Luther King, Jr.

April 16, 1963

“…One may well ask, "How can you advocate
breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact
that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust
laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at
all…

…In the midst of a mighty
struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so
many ministers say, "Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing
to do with," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a
completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between
bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.

“There was a time when the church
was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced
when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days
the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles
of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of
society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got
disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of
the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the
conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God
rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too
God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an
end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

“Things are different now. The
contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain
sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being
disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community
is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the
judgment of God is upon the church as never before.

“If the church of today does not
recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic
ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social
club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day
whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust. I hope the
church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.

“But even if the church does not
come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear
about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are
presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and
all over the nation, because the goal of

America is freedom. Abused and
scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.

“Before the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages
of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here.
For more than two centuries our fore parents labored here without wages; they made
cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal
injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet out of a bottomless vitality our
people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of
slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will
win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will
of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”

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SAND HILLS LIGHTHOUSE

ONCE HOME TO THE TORMALA FAMILY

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THE FLAME NEBULA: STARS BEING BORN!!

The Flame Nebula sits on the eastern hip of Orion the Hunter, a constellation most easily visible in the northern hemisphere during winter evenings. This view of the nebula was taken by WISE, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This image shows a vast cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born. Three familiar nebulae are visible in the central region: the Flame Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula and NGC 2023. The Flame Nebula is the brightest and largest in the image. It is lit by a star inside it that is 20 times the mass of the sun and would be as bright to our eyes as the other stars in Orion's belt if it weren't for all the surrounding dust, which makes it appear 4 billion times dimmer than it actually is. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

GR POT PROPOSAL IS DISHONEST, DECEPTIVE AND JUST PLAIN DOPEY If a person uses a couple ounces of marijuana in the privacy of their o...

JIM THORPE

AMERICA's GREATEST ATHLETE

Comet Lovejoy

International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy from about 240 miles above the Earth’s horizon

Lt. Col. Matt Urban

President Carter called Lt. Col. Matt Urban "The Greatest Soldier in American History" when he presented him with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions of heroism performed during World War II delayed 35 years by administrative errors. It was my honor to know this great American of courage, humility and kindness.

Former Grand Rapids City Commissioner Rick Tormala cleaned up the Assessor's Office, helped save the 911 Emergency Response System, and protected millions of tax dollars from being wasted by being a fiscal pit bull. Rick was the voice for veterans, seniors, working families and the vulnerable at City Hall.

Rick Tormala was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He graduated from Catholic Central High School and worked his way through Aquinas College on the back of a City garbage truck earning a degree in Urban Sociology. After college he worked as a neighborhood service representative and political consultant. In the 80’s he worked for MIOSHA as the Governor’s Liaison with the Michigan Youth Corps and was chief aide to State Representative Tom Mathieu where he was the primary legislative architect for Michigan’s Long Term Health Care Ombudsman Act.

In 1987 Rick became U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s Regional Director for his West Michigan Office serving in that position for 13 years, while also advising the Senator on health care and senior issues. Elected to the Grand Rapids City Commission in 1999 he served two notable and effective terms. In fact in his last two Second Ward City Commission races Rick won with an average of 62% of the vote while carrying every precinct in his ward despite being outspent both times by his defeated opponents.

Rick has been a case manager in an inner city ministry, a federal investigator, publisher of a monthly paper, radio host on WPRR's TUESDAYS WITH TORMALA and now is a consultant, writer, commentator and analyst of news and public policy.

Rick and his wife Ilze have been married over 35 years and have three grown children Joe, Jaclyn, and Whitney, Son-in-Law Joel, beautiful Granddaughter Emily Grace and wonderful Grandson Brady!! With Charlie the Dog and Bayley the Cat!

Classic Clock

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THREE GREAT HEROES AND SPACE PIONEERS!

Mercury 7 veteran Gus Grissom, the first American to walk in space Ed White and Grand Rapids, Michigan’s very own Roger Chaffee were preparing for Apollo 1 the first manned Apollo flight but tragically died when a fire broke out in the capsule during a test. The subsequent improvements in future spacecraft resulting from their deaths made possible the safe flight of American astronauts to the Moon and back. God bless these heroes and their families! Image Credit: NASA

ST. POPE PIUS X

This great servant of holiness and humility worked to "restore all things in Christ" and simply said of himself. "'I was born poor; I lived poor; I wish to die poor."

OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET

Seul Choix Point Lighthouse

Haunted since 1912 by Our Family Ghost and Great, Great Grandfather Captain Joseph Wiley Townshend

A STAR IS BORN

To celebrate its 22nd anniversary in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has released a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs. A new image from all three of NASA's Great Observatories - Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer - has also been created to mark the event. 30 Doradus is located in the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, and is one of the largest star-forming regions located close to the Milky Way . At the center of 30 Doradus, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation along with powerful winds. The Chandra X-ray Observatory detects gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by these stellar winds and also by supernova explosions. These X-rays, colored blue in this composite image, come from shock fronts -- similar to sonic booms -- formed by this high-energy stellar activity. The Hubble data in the composite image, colored green, reveals the light from these massive stars along with different stages of star birth including embryonic stars a few thousand years old still wrapped in cocoons of dark gas. Infrared emission from Spitzer, seen in red, shows cooler gas and dust that have giant bubbles carved into them. These bubbles are sculpted by the same searing radiation and strong winds that comes from the massive stars at the center of 30 Doradus. Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL/PSU/L.Townsley et al.

L'Angelus

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Full Moon Over Washington

A United States Marine Corps helicopter is seen flying through this scene of the full moon and the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012, from Arlington National Cemetery. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 02/08/2012 12:00 AM EST

Mount Rushmore

History carved in stone.

ANGELS OVER THE FALLS

SALUTE FROM THE MOON!

John Young, astronaut and Navy veteran, salutes the U.S. flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA-1). Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, jumps up from the lunar surface as astronaut and Air Force veteran, Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot, took this picture.CREDIT: NASA, Charles M. Duke Jr

A BREATHTAKING GALACTIC SPECTACLE FROM THE HAND OF THE CREATOR!

A Surprisingly Bright Superbubble: This composite image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light years from Earth. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44, so named because it is the 44th nebula in a catalog of such objects in the Magellanic Clouds. The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found. The optical light from the 2.2-m Max-Planck-ESO telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow. A long-running problem in high-energy astrophysics has been that some superbubbles in the LMC, including N44, give off a lot more X-rays than expected from models of their structure. These models assume that hot, X-ray emitting gas has been produced by winds from massive stars and the remains of several supernovas. A Chandra study published in 2011 showed that there are two extra sources of N44’s X-ray emission not included in these models: supernova shock waves striking the walls of the cavities, and hot material evaporating from the cavity walls. The Chandra observations also show no evidence for an enhancement of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the cavities, thus ruling out this possibility as a third explanation for the bright X-ray emission. Only with long observations making full use of the capabilities of Chandra has it now become possible to distinguish between different sources of the X-rays produced by superbubbles. The Chandra study of N44 and another superbubble in the LMC was led by Anne Jaskot from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The co-authors were Dave Strickland from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, Sally Oey from University of Michigan, You-Hua Chu from University of Illinois and Guillermo Garcia-Segura from Instituto de Astronomia-UNAM in Ensenada, Mexico. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass. Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m

Fighting Bob LaFollette

One of our Greatest US Senators

Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son

“God has never pulled back his arms, never withheld his blessing, never stopped considering his son the Beloved One. But the Father couldn’t compel his son to stay home. He couldn’t force his love on the Beloved. He had to let him go in freedom, even though he knew the pain it would cause both his son and himself. It was love itself that prevented him from keeping his son home at all cost. It was love itself that allowed him to let his son find his own life, even with the risk of losing it.” Henri Nouwen’s, THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON

RED GALAXIES

Artist rendering of the four extremely red galaxies, Credit: David A. Aguilar, Director of Public Affairs, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Dorothy Day

Prayer, Peace and Justice!

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Sociable

Grand Canyon NP Mather Point

Mather Point, a short walk from the Visitor Center, parking lots and the shuttle bus transit station is one of the most popular and busiest viewpoints on the South Rim of Grand Canyon. For visitors entering the park on the South Rim, Mather Point is the first place to stop and see the canyon. NPS Photo by Michael Quinn